Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

4S

CITIES OF EGYPT.

the single known figure portraying the wife of a chief of
the land of spices; both priceless documents of history
and ethnology. Besides the rage of conquerors and the
industrious destruction of our ignorant fellow-country-
men, for they are the worst offenders, nature at Thebes
is proving that even the massive architecture of Egypt
cannot resist her patient forces. The nitrous soil is
slowly undermining the vast columns of El-Karnak,
which will some day fall in confused ruin as by the shock
of an earthquake. But this final catastrophe of the
greatest temple has not yet come. There, as elsewhere,
we can still, in quiet chambers untouched by the army of
spoilers, see the former magnificence of the capital; or,
yet more, can be carried back into the past, when we
descend into some little-visited royal tomb deep in the
rock of the silent valley of the west, on whose walls yet
shine the mystic pictures that portray the fate of the soul
in the world beyond the grave.

The origin of the great city is obscure. Unlike
Memphis, Thebes, her southern rival, rose to the head-
ship by slow degrees. It was towards the close of the
dark age marked by the rule of Hanes, that a new line
of kings arose in the upper country, with Thebes for